A Tibetan Buddhist monk in exile is detained by Indian police officers during a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi in October 2011. / Sajjad Hussain, AFP/Getty Images

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

BEIJING - Chinese authorities have made good on their threat to prosecute people who help Tibetans set fire to themselves in a protest of Communist Party rule.

Eight Tibetans were jailed for their roles in several self-immolations last year and one of the convicted was sentenced to death, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

China has increased security forces and surveillance cameras in provinces where the protests involving mostly Tibetan Buddhist monks represent a threat to its control. Riots broke out in some cities in 2008 that were put down violently by Chinese police.

Ninety-nine people have set themselves on fire since the first self-immolation in February 2009, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. More than 80 have happened in the past 12 months alone, the majority fatal.

In most cases the self-immolators are demanding the return of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader who fled Chinese rule, and freedom for Tibet, which was taken over by China following the communist revolution in the 1950s.

China alleges that the self-immolators are organized by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exile groups. The Tibetan government-in-exile says Beijing's repressive policies are to blame for the suicides.

After a series of security crackdowns failed to stem the protests, the Chinese government announced late last year it would treat self-immolation as a crime and charge anyone inciting the act with "intentional murder."

On Thursday, courts in Sichuan and Gansu provinces, which border the Tibet Autonomous Region and are home to significant Tibetan minorities, issued the first convictions.

Two Tibetans were convicted in Sichuan for inciting eight people to self-immolate, three of whom died, Xinhua said. One was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, which usually means life imprisonment, and the other to 10 years in prison.

In Gansu province, six Tibetans were sentenced by a court to three to 12 years in prison for their roles in an Oct. 23, 2012, self-immolation at a shopping mall in Xiahe. Xiahe is home to the Labrang Monastery, one of the key centers of Tibetan Buddhism.

Several Tibetans interviewed recently in south Gansu expressed sorrow at the ongoing loss of life but rejected the Chinese government's handling of them.

"We can understand those that self-immolate, as their feelings of frustration are shared by all Tibetans," said a wheat farmer, 23, near Labrang Monastery. "We all want the Dalai Lama to return and religious freedom for Tibet, that's why they do it."

Tibetans who spoke to USA TODAY requested anonymity out of fear of retribution from Chinese police.